Dear all,

here comes a cfp for the panel "the visual and cultural dimension of
protest" of the "protest politics" section at the ECPR General Conference,
to be held in Potsdam 10-12 September 2009.

ECPR GENERAL CONFERENCE
POTSDAM
10-12 SEPTEMBER 2009

SECTION: PROTEST POLITICS

PANEL: THE VISUAL AND CULTURAL DIMENSION OF PROTEST

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION 1 FEBRUARY 2009

Whether at the local level or within an increasingly transnational field of
collective action, the cultural and visual politics of protest continue to
be an underresearched and all the more relevant field for protest and
symbolic action. The proposed panel invites social and political scientists
interested in the cultural and symbolic politics of protest, both in the
European context, in other regional areas and in transnational and global
arenas of protest. What is the relationship between identity, strategy and
the cultural and visual encoding of protest? Radical social movements as
well as established policy makers or right wing political parties use
cultural tactics, symbolic action or visual images to mobilise solidarity,
reach out for social change or defend the status quo. Protesters perform
culture in street demonstrations and carnivals, direct action or in emerging
internet communication platforms, and with this try to reimagine cultural
practices and collective identities. Through internet communication
technologies, activists increasingly diffuse their alternative visual images
and symbols to mobilise solidarity and target policy maker at multiple
territorial layers. Papers could address the following questions: How, when
and by which means do protesters or radical actors use public sphere as a
cultural sphere to target policy makers? What is the impact of symbolic
action on mainstream actors of the political and economic system and in the
culture production? Under which contextual conditions and through which
tactics do protesters succeed or fail in reaching their target groups? What
is the roles of images and symbols as possible lingua franca, tool for
translation or trigger for contention in a Europeanised, global and
transnational political space? By which means do radical cultural and visual
politics created and diffuse a collective identity within movements or
produce contention in a broader environment?

TO SUBMIT A PAPER AND FOR FURTHER DETAILS
http://www.ecpr.org.uk/potsdam/panel_details.asp?panelID=418
FOR MORE DETAILS ON PAPERS SUBMISSION
http://www.ecpr.org.uk/potsdam/files/paper_proposals_guidelines_and_deadlines.pdf
OTHER INFO ABOUT THE ECPR general conference, sections, panels, day by day
program and practical details http://www.ecpr.org.uk/potsdam/default.asp

-- 
Alice Mattoni
Department of Political and Social Sciences
European University Institute

Badia Fiesolana
Via dei Roccettini 9
I-50016 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI)

E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Skype: aliceemme